Beach Therapy

Who doesn't love the sound of the waves crashing at the beach, or the smell of the salt air, or wiggling your toes in the wet sand?  This is what inspired my June quilt.  As an Island Batik Ambassador, we are given an assignment each month to complete with fabric that they sent me back in January.  This month the theme is Curvalicious! 

How perfect for me and my Curvalicious template!  

I have created lots of different Curvalicious items, so I thought it would be fun to create a different quilt for this monthly challenge. I had a stack of Island Batik fabrics that just arrived in quilt shops.  They had lots of fun designs.

 There was a wide variety of fabrics and  I pinned a few of them to my design wall and let it marinate for a few days.  With the 4th of July coming up some of the fabrics made me think of the beach, so I pulled out the lighter fabrics that reminded me of sand. 

I thought this would be a good opportunity to share a tutorial to create another variation on a Curvalicious quilt.  Usually the quilts are vertically oriented, but what  would it look like if the strips were placed horizontally? The concept behind a Curvalicious quilt is a pieced background with fusible appliques placed over the background.  The first step is to piece together 5- 1/2" strips.  I used 8  cream colored fabrics to make strips.

The next step is to cut 4" strips, the same length and iron paper backed fusible web to the wrong side.  I used pale blues.  

Remove the paper, fold it in half with the fusible side out.  

Place one edge of the Curvalicious  template on the fold and cut out the Curvalicious applique using a 28mm rotary cutter, The result is fusible curvy strips - one less than the number of pieced strips.

Start at the center and place on the of the applique strip over the center seam.  Press.

Stitch the strips down as they are fused with a machine blanket stitch.

This Superior Fantastico  thread was also given to me with the fabric.  It's a shiny polyester and I do love shiny.  It really stitches beautifully and I will definitely add it to my thread acquisition list.

Proceed to add the rest of the fusible strips, working out from the center, using Curvalicious for placement. Press.

Keep going until all of the seams are covered  with the fusible strips.

For the top and bottom borders, I used the font AR Christy, font size 500, to create fusible letters and stitched them down with the same blanket stitch that I used above with a blue/green Fantastico thread.

Then add the word borders to the top and bottom and quilt!

Wouldn't this look great in a beach house?

I grew up on Long Island and we called the ocean/sane the beach.  I live in the Philadelphia area and it's called the shore. I'm curious, what is it called where you live?

If  you are interested in seeing lots of other quilts that you can make with Cirvalicious, check out its website:

www.Curvalicious.net

You can buy Curvalicious from my Etsy shop.  Click HERE.

It's Monday

22" x 22"

The theme for this month's Island Batik Ambassador quilt is Adventuresome Applique.

 I think this piece definitely conveys my adventuresome spirit.  I have ridden my bike in the PA, DE, VA, NY, Utah, Florida, PEI, Spain, France, etc, etc.  It's a great feeling to have the wind blow in my face and smell the countryside.  My favorite thing to do on my bike is to ride over a bridge or take it on a ferry.  And the tired feeling that you have after being on the bike all day is empowering.

For 2 months in Key West, I try to get on my bike every day with my favorite companion, Bailey.  You'll have to excuse her fur color change.  She would have blended into the background if I hadn't taken a little artistic license.  And if I'm not on my bicycle, I'm at my sewing machine.

I originally made this quilt for my quilt guild's anniversary with a theme of what does our guild mean to you.  There was a designated size and fabric to be used as the background. Since joining this guild about 20 years ago, I went from an eager novice quilter to someone that travels the country teaching and sharing my quilts and techniques.  

So when I needed my adventuresome applique quilt  using Island Batik fabrics, I knew I had to make it again!  It was fun and easy and I'll share my quilt as you applique technique.

1.  Layer the background, batting and backing fabric and quilt.  I used linear organic quilting with Superior Threads, Fantastico, a variegated polyester thread.  I like a bit of shine.

2.  I used my original drawing to create the fusible appliques from the Island Batik fabrics.  Since you end up with a mirror image, I flipped it over and used the wrong side to create the appliques.

3.  I then placed a piece of parchment paper over the drawing, positioned the appliques and pressed. This forms an entire bicycle.

4.  I repeated the process for the letters.

5.  I placed all the appliques on the quilted background fabric, making sure I was pleased with the placement and pressed all the appliques in place. 

6.  I used a straight stitch with a free motion foot and lowering the feed dogs to stitch around all the appliques.  (Securing the appliques in this way also acts like quilting.)

7.  I also stitched the binding on by machine.

 What a fun project! And it looks great in batiks.

Galentine's Day

Have you heard of Galentine's Day?  I hadn't, but my DIL informed me that it was a fictional holiday made up on the TV show Parks & Rec to celebrate our love for our girlfriends.  The official fictional date is February 13th, the day before Valentine's Day.  

As an Island Batik Ambassador, my first assignment was to create something to celebrate this holiday.  I decided to use their Sweet Nectar line and  create these fun postcards to mail to my friends.  I love the combination of pink and orange.  It's a wonderful alternative to pink and red for this alternative holiday.  

These postcards can be sent through the US POstal Service.  Usually they hand stamp them and add a bit of extra postage.  To facilitate this, I print a postcard form that I formatted onto plain fabric.

Then I stitch this backing along with a piece of card stock onto the back of my mini quilt.  I use a zig zag stitch.

It's a great way to let your friends/family know that you're thinking of them with a fun little quilt.

So wishing all of my girlfriends,a Happy Galentine's Day.  You are very special to me and your support and love mean the world to me!